I could go on and on about superpowers and passions and things that are completely ‘ausome’ about being on the spectrum. We’re fascinating, mysterious, gifted, deficient, challenged and unique–all at once. Still, what I want to say about my own ausomeness today is not just about all the positives. My own writing in this space tends to be tilted to the positive, that’s an intentional choice to restore some sort of balance to our own ways of thinking about ourselves. I think the world tells us too often how wrong we are, how we need to adjust to fit in and seem ‘normal’. (If any of you ever come across a ‘normal’ person, I would very much like to shake their hand.)

Some days, the pressure to keep my blog posts positive or upbeat or optimistic is certainly a challenge. Then I saw this pic from Mama Be Good, for her participation in today’s Autism Positivity Flashblog (2013), and decided to jump off from here. Yes, there are days that I struggle with being positive: days that I feel the focus on my own acceptance is hollow, hard and as false as rainbow glitter farted from a flying unicorn’s backside. These are the bad days, the sad days, the days when I’ve likely taken things too far and forgotten to properly take care of myself. “Autism is not all rainbows.” I’ve heard this and similar comments from parents of autistic children, and less frequently from ASDies–usually ones who are overwhelmed and depressed.